Beaujolais Nouveau 2010

[taxlady]

Why would I want a young wine with no bubbles? For a young wine I'll take a vinho verde.

[Mad Cook]

Originally Posted by Steve Kroll

Having worked in the UK, I can tell you that the keyboards work a little differently than US keyboards, and can attest they are particularly troublesome for US users to get used to.

Do you by chance have the "AltGr" key? If so, you should be able to hold down AltGr and press the circumflex key (to the right of "A"), followed by the "o" key.

On other UK keyboards, it may produce the special "ALT" characters by using the left ALT key ONLY. As GG says, you must hold down the key while typing in the entire sequence of numbers on the numeric keypad, in this case 0244.

If you are on a tablet with a virtual keyboard, the special characters can often be created by holding down the base character key (in this case "O") and waiting for the alternate character menu to pop up.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Steve. My circumflex is above 6 but, oddly, when I press "Alt GR, shift, ^ and o" all together I get Ó I get the same and nearly run out of fingers! The same with Alt grand 0244. E acute works though. I just hope I never have to write a c cédile!

Ho hum. I think it's easier to look ignorant

[Steve Kroll]

Originally Posted by inviteur

Thank you very much for your explanation and i do know even i have not never tasted that foreign wines could be as good as French wines low and medium ones :) . The upper best will remain French.

Well, that's certainly the myth that the French wine industry would have you believe.

But statistics indicate that we "foreigners" can make wine that will stand next to the best of the French:
BBC NEWS | Europe | Wine competition pits France v US

Whatever the case, I will admit I do like a lot of French wines. Lately I've found myself buying more from the Languedoc-Roussillon area, as I find that even the simple vin de pays is a good value and enjoyable to drink.

[Mad Cook]

Originally Posted by Steve Kroll

So that's why an AOC type system wouldn't work as well here. Our winemaking is at a stage where we are still determining what grows best in our different terroirs. Even where we have a good idea of what works, we still don't want to impose limits on the winemaker's creativity.

The American wines we get here certainly have come on by leaps and bounds in the 40 or so years since they started to appear here (in a carafe-shaped glass container with a foil top! It was cheap but pretty grim).

I tend to stick with European reds as I find that "new world" reds (USA, Chile, Australia, etc.,) give me a headache (Stop laughing at the back. I don't mean I drink too much). Not sure why. A friend says that it's because non-european winemakers use chemicals which European winemakers aren't allowed to use but that seems a bit far-fetched to me.

[Steve Kroll]

Originally Posted by Mad Cook

The American wines we get here certainly have come on by leaps and bounds in the 40 or so years since they started to appear here (in a carafe-shaped glass container with a foil top! It was cheap but pretty grim).

I tend to stick with European reds as I find that "new world" reds (USA, Chile, Australia, etc.,) give me a headache (Stop laughing at the back. I don't mean I drink too much). Not sure why. A friend says that it's because non-european winemakers use chemicals which European winemakers aren't allowed to use but that seems a bit far-fetched to me.

You're correct, MC. The "new world" has to follow the same rules as the EU in order to sell wine over there (and vice versa) so no unusual additives. Here's a theory: lately histamines have been determined to be the culprit behind wine headaches, and since histamines are produced by yeast, perhaps the yeast strains used here are a factor. I don't know. Just jumping to an unfounded and possibly half-baked conclusion.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on DC before, but I also serve as an administrator on a UK wine website, and even once had the honor of judging at a UK home wine competition held in West Yorks in 2010.

While there, I asked my British friend if we might go to a shop where I could buy American wine. Not that I had the intention of buying anything; I was really only curious to see what was available. We ended up going to a couple of places in Leeds. I recall visiting a dedicated wine shop, as well as a Tesco. There was some American wine on the shelves at Tesco, but most of what I saw was Blossom Hill, Fetzer, Gallo, and the like. These are all considered very low end brands in the US. Some of the better mass market brands we have - Louis Martini, Beringer, Cline, Rombauer, Ste. Michelle - were not present at all. It was disappointing.

The dedicated wine shop offered a few more upscale selections such as Ravenswood, a mid market brand that makes a decent Zinfandel, and, of all things, Opus One, a Mondavi/Rothschild joint venture at the upper end of the market. Excellent wine, but overpriced in my opinion.

I might be way off base, but I've often wondered if the EU strives to keep all but the lowliest US wines out of the market over there, thus reducing competition with European wines. Likewise, I've observed that many of the Aussie wines sold in the UK are not typically the best they have to offer, either.

Food for thought.

[Souschef]

Steve, I agree with your statement
" Opus One, a Mondavi/Rothschild joint venture at the upper end of the market. Excellent wine, but overpriced in my opinion."
I went to a wine tasting on a cruise recently, mainly so I could taste the Opus One without popping for a bottle. It was a nice wine, and the sommelier said they were having a "fire sale" on the wine at $125 a bottle!
We tasted another cabernet that was quite a bit less expensive, and it was as good as the Opus One. I guess it is all in the hype of the name.